Courses Courses

This course will concentrate on the character creation process, focusing on all aspects of character concept and development. Students will learn to understand character types, body language and production techniques. In the fast growing gaming and animation industry, the ability to create characters is essential. Graphic novels/ comics, children’s books and advertising also rely heavily on an illustrators ability to create characters that meet client demands/ needs and make them part of a cohesive world. Offered spring.

This one-half semester course is framed by the theme of Community and Collaboration. The students and instructor work collaboratively to define and explore "community" as local place and learning environment. They identify and activate connections among charette members and their specified community in order to develop a consensual creative response. Through sustained exploration of one theme, the Charette emphasizes the development of skills for critical and creative thinking, experiential learning, problem-solving, and collaboration. Through materials exploration, making processes, and critique, the Charette forges links with the visual, tactile and manual skill sets taught in other Foundation classes. Each student's effort, progress, and work will contribute to a collaborative project developed over 7 weeks, to include both a charette documentation log as well as a collaborative 2D, 3D, or 4D form. Offered fall.

This one-half semester course is framed by the theme of Self and other Voices. As an exploration of one's self in relation to culture and society, the course facilitates increased self-knowledge and helps students uncover their views of "other." The students and instructor work collaboratively to define and explore "other voices," cultivate connections with those other voices, and develop creative responses. Through sustained exploration of one theme, the Charette gives priority to the development of skills for critical and creative thinking, experiential learning, problem-solving, and collaboration. Through materials exploration, making processes, and critique, the Charette forges links with the visual, tactile, and manual skill sets being taught in other Foundation classes. Each student's effort, progress, and work will contribute to a project developed over 7 weeks, to include both a charette documentation log and a 2D, 3D, and/or 4D form. Offered fall.

Many adults feel they are familiar with the classic children’s books covered in this course, but actually know only sanitized versions, most produced for the movie screen. This class will examine the original texts of several well-known titles as literature and the fascinating and sometimes disturbing stories behind them. Critical reading, thought, research and writing on these texts will be among the key skills covered. Students will read extensively and discuss what they have read in class, create and deliver peer-evaluated presentations, and write a semester research paper related to the topics of the course. They will view several related films during the semester as well.

The purpose of this course is two-fold: first, to determine, through intensive readings in translation from the work of representative poets, what characterizes Chinese poetic achievement and, second to articulate our own informed response to these poems. Primary emphasis will be placed on the lyric mode as it develops from its origins in the Book of Songs (compiled c. 600BCE) through its golden age in the T'ang and Sung dynasties. Continuing attention will be paid to the tension between public and private commitment expressed by poets who choose between, attempt to resolve, or transcend these commitments. Topics for special consideration include the classical Chinese language as a vehicle for poetic expression and Chinese calligraphy as an exercise in dynamic proportions, the technical requirements of two major lyric forms, nature as a source of both inspiration and poetic metaphor, and the didactic and individualist traditions of Chinese literary criticism. Fulfills Humanities/Cultural Studies distribution requirement. Creative Writing Concentration course.

Students will acquire a working knowledge of the history of the Cleveland Institute of Art--with an emphasis on the diversity of accomplishment among both historical and current CIA faculty and alumni--and will consider whether and, if so, how this information supports their own developing artistic identity and their membership in the CIA community, a "creative continuum" now spanning 130 years (1882-2012). Understanding the history of our school will involve some amount of attention to the history of Cleveland (especially post-1860) and its location in Northeast Ohio, as well as the school's proximity to the Cleveland Museum of Art and other cultural institutions, once the school came to University Circle in 1905. The impact of major 20th-century events like the World Wars and the Great Depression on the school and its community will also be considered. May be applied as Creative Writing Concentration course.

What does a cinematic image of time look like? Why did this question suddenly seem pressing after the Second World War? How has cinematic time been explored by filmmakers and artists in the past 50 years? What possibilities does this exploration open up? These questions will guide our investigation of cinematic time since 1960. We will consider a wide range of films and moving image media in which time takes on strange qualities—where the emphasis is on what is happening in the image, rather than on what has happened or will happen in the next shot. $25 course fee required.

This course is an introduction to the craft of filmmaking and appreciation of film as a pioneering medium of communication, entertainment, and art. The course introduces technical and aesthetic fundamentals of 16mm filmmaking where students work on individual and group projects. Students learn the camera, support systems, lighting techniques, metering systems and sound recording. Students are introduced to equipment used for production and post-production. Coursework includes visualization, pre-production planning, operation of equipment, and group collaboration. Students are exposed to the major movements in film history and important aesthetic approaches to film art. Students execute several exercises in 16mm film. They are responsible to purchase and process a minimum of three 100ft rolls (approximately 3.5 minutes each) of 16mm film stock. Open studio elective. Prerequisite: PHV 295 Photo I: Intro to Photography or instructor’s signature. Open studio elective.